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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Kendrick Lamar Reveals Title and Release Date for Sophomore Album

Angelo Merendino, Getty Images

It looks like Kendrick Lamar’s second album is arriving in stores sooner than expected. On Friday (March 6), the Compton rhymer announced the title and release date for the follow-up to his classic 2012 Grammy-nominated effort, good kid, m.A.A.d city.

According to iTunes, Lamar’s project is called [Untitled] and due to arrive on March 23. K. Dot tweeted out a link for fans to pre-order the album on his Twitter account.

http://t.co/4D2zhfsEkf

— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) March 6, 2015

XXL contacted reps at Interscope Records and they confirmed that the information is real and not an error. In addition, TDE President Punch tweeted an iTunes link for fans to pre-order the album as well.

Lol

— Punch (@iamstillpunch) March 6, 2015

Preorder https://t.co/RKlTgQNvno

— Punch (@iamstillpunch) March 6, 2015

Judging by the iTunes listing, it appears that the album will boast 16 songs, including the powerful track “The Blacker the Berry.” Also, the LP’s artwork will be pitch black.

Additional information on this album is not available at this time.

Lamar is not the first artist to release an album with no title. In 2008, Nas’ ninth studio album was Untitled after the original title — the N-word — was changed because of the uproar over the racial epithet. In 2009, R. Kelly called his album Untitled following his acquittal of child pornography charges. Also, Prince’s 1994 effort was untitled, hence its now referred to title The Black Album because the project had only a black cover, song titles and nothing else.

So what is Lamar trying to tell us with his blacked-out Untitled album? It’s anyone’s guess. But if the music sounds as impactful as “The Blacker the Berry,” then we can expect the project to be unapologetically black and unapologetically hip-hop.

Stay tuned.

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